Reports today indicate Venezuela’s Dictator Hugo Chavez is near death, after undergoing a fourth surgery for cancer in Cuba. He is said to now also be fighting a lung infection:

UK GUARDIAN: Three months after crowds celebrated another election triumph for the president, the mood in Caracas is transformed.

The change of mood in Plaza Bolivar could hardly be more dramatic. Less than three months ago, jubilant crowds filled the main square in Caracas to celebrate another election triumph for Hugo Chávez with chants of “Oo, ah, Chávez no se va” – Chávez won’t go.

Now, however, supporters wait anxiously for any scrap of news from Havana, Cuba, where their president is fighting for his life after emergency cancer surgery.

“We are all very confused. We have no idea what to expect. I pray for his recovery but I am expecting the worst,” said Joaquín Cavarcas, as he scanned the Ciudad CCS newspaper for the latest update.

Next Thursday, Chávez is supposed to be inaugurated for a further six-year term of office at a ceremony at the National Assembly, a short walk from the plaza. But the usually gregarious, publicity-loving president has not been seen or heard since his operation on 11 December, prompting speculation that he will not recover in time. . . .Read More

The candidate of the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), Henrique Capriles, is leading against Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez in the presidential elections held on Sunday … according to exit polls by consultancy Variance prior to the closing of polling stations. The time set for the closing was 12:30 a.m. Spanish time, however, and because of the long lines in some of them, polls have remained open without a definite closure time.

Despite the fact that Venezuelan law expressly prohibits the publication of polls, the Spanish outlet was free to conduct its polls. Its exit surveys indicate that Capriles won 51.3 percent of the vote, compared to Chavez’s 48.06 percent. . . . Read More

Here is great video of Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen blasting far-Left actor Sean Penn for his criticism of the United States and his defense of Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez.

“He’s a loser,” Guillen said of Penn.

Essentially, Chavez said Penn is clueless about what Venezuela is really like. In fact, Guillen had a reality-check for what would happen to Penn is he had to live in Venezuela:

“He should stay in Venezuela for two years – live what I grow up. To see, first of all, how much he survive, because he will be shot. . . I invite him to go to Venezuela with me. I say, ‘This is Venezuela, bro. This is Venezuela, not the one they show you.’ . . He don’t have any right to talk about our country with no reason.”

Good grief. Somehow I don’t think the “fox guarding the chicken-coop” is a good idea.

Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez is proposing a plan to bring “peace” to Libya. He wants a delegation to go to Libya and try to bring the two sides – Dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his opponents – together and end the crisis.

Chavez is pitching his plan to the Arab League.

Just what the doctor ordered: One Dictator trying to help his Dictator friend stay in power.